Notary Public Newsletter

April, 2014:

Are you a Notary Public?

While most will probably answer yes, keep in mind that you are NOT only a Notary Public. If you are self employed, you ARE also in the business of selling Notary Public Services. Although you are probably the one providing the service yourself, you probably still need to market yourself. That can present a challenge for many and it becomes evident and more critical when business is slowing down, due to the cycle of the market.

As a Notary Public and being self employed, we not only have to work “in” the business (doing the notarial tasks), but also “on” the business. We need to go out and market our services. Establishing relationships with prospective clients, nurturing the established business relations, and thinking about other industries and companies that we can help with our service.

When I hosted a teleclass to help notaries increase their business, the overwhelming challenge was marketing and getting more assignments. Interestingly, while all notaries need to have a working knowledge of how to perform notarial services, most are challenged when it comes to marketing their own service.

There are pretty much 2 categories of people (notaries) out there:
The notary who doesn’t know how to effectively market their service, and the notary who knows how to market their business, yet is not doing enough of it. Which category do you belong to?

[…continued from email Newsletter]

Aside from maybe enrolling in a course and passing a state exam to become a Notary Public, did you also enroll in learning HOW to build your business?
Learning who your potential clients are, learning where to find them and how to market to them.
These are the “Transactional” aspects of marketing your business.

How about the “Transformational” aspects? The reasons as to why you might not market your services more, even though you know exactly what to do? The thoughts that are going through your mind that hold you back, such as: “It’s really slow right now”, or “nobody has business for me at this time”, how about “I am discouraged by the never ending rules and regulations”, etc.

The only constant in this business is change: change in the volume of business, change in HOW we are doing it, regulatory changes and always new and innovative ways to markets and promote ourselves and our business.

How are you reacting to the changes? Do you look at them as obstacles, or opportunities?

Chances are, if you are looking at them as obstacles, it is being reflected in your level of business. Remember, what you focus on expands. When you are focusing on obstacles, you will come up with many reasons as to why things don’t or won’t work.

In order to change that, focus on opportunities. Here are some examples:

-Business is slow and I have more time to spend on marketing
-The refinance market is slowing down and I now have time to promote my business to other industries
-“They” keep coming up with more guidelines and regulations. It’s time to create another stream of income.

Keep in mind, there is no “one right for all” answer to this. Ask yourself: What is it that I really want. What is holding me back from doing it, and what can I change to now forward and achieve it.

For more resources and information, check out our Notary Public Mentor page.